(Sivananda Saraswati)

All of us reached Hrishikesh. Ramakrishna Rao had arranged for the stay of the entire party in a big guesthouse and nearby cottages. At that time, Sivananda’s ashram, the next day, which happened to be Sivananda’s seventieth birthday. Swami remarked: ‘It is not Sivananda’s birthday but Kuppuswami’s birthday. Before he assumed the name. Sivananda, as a renunciant, his name was Kuppuswami. He was a doctor. That Kuppuswami ceased to exist with the taking of Sanyaasa. He then adopted the name Sivananda. That was 26 years ago. Hence the Swami is only 26 years old as Sivananda. It is the 70th Birthday for Kuppuswami and only the 26th Birthday for Sivananda!’ Sivanada said: ‘Swami! No one has told me this truth so far in this forceful manner.’ This body is 70 years old. People recognise the physical, but do not recognise the basis that sustains it. This truth can be understood only by Divine personalities like avatars and not by others. From the moment of birth till the end of this body it will bear one form and one name.

People, who profess Advaita, often remember their pre-Sannyasa life and continue to think of it while carrying on their life as renunciants. (SSS Vol.29, pp. 327-328)

On the twenty-second of July Baba left New Delhi by car for Rishikesh. Swami Sivananda s monastic disciples escorted Him from Hardwar. When He reached Sivanandanagar at 6:30 that evening, Swami Sivananda called a special gathering of the disciples at the Ashram and offered Baba a hearty welcome. While Sivananda greeted Baba with folded hands, as was his custom, Baba acknowledged the greeting with His posture of the Hand which means, "Do not fear," a sign that has given peace to thousands of troubled souls.

Sivanandanagar nestles on the lap of the evergreen mountains, banked lovingly by the kindly right arm of Mother Ganges. The left bank of the river, when it comes into view occasionally as the curtain of mist is wafted away, is resplendent with a line of temples and edifices housing the hermitages: Gita, Bhavan, and the Swargashram. More impressive than these are the forest-clad mountains on every side that seem like superhuman sages lost in silent contemplation of the Infinite. They have turned their eyes inward and are blissfully unaware of history.

The Ganges, daughter of earth and sky, famed in lore and legend, sought after by devotees in every Hindu home for thousands of years to sanctify every ritual, to purify every rite, to exorcise every evil, to cleanse every sin, immortalized in poetry, symbolized in art, embedded in architecture, idealized in sculpture, humanized in painting, extolled in music, revered as the vehicle of bliss, tells a scintillating story which is related by a million mothers every nightfall to the toddlers on their laps. Ganges rolls majestically by, reminding everyone of India s message and India s grandeur. When the students of the hermitage arranged a gathering of devotees the next day, and requested Baba to give them a message, He referred to the Ganges, comparing it to a sincere seeker of God speeding to the sea. He said that every river knows that it has come from the sea and it is prompted by that knowledge to hurry toward the sea, irrespective of all obstacles of the earthy terrain. He commended the quietness of Sivanandanagar, the Ashram of Swami Sivananda, and said that it was also a good place to acquire spiritual quietness. Referring to the appellation of "Bhagavan" which was used while introducing Him to the gathering, He said that Bha meant "creation," Ga meant "protection" and Va meant "change" or "transformation." "Bhagavan is capable of all three. That is My secret," He announced.

Speaking of the things that He is accustomed to make and give, He discounted all spurious explanations and said that His Will is immediately fulfilled. He materializes things to give joy to His devotees, just as a father gives sweets to his little ones, not to advertise his generosity or parenthood. He gives them to save people worry or anxiety, to ensure peace of mind, help develop spiritual concentration, and in many cases to keep up His own "contact" with the careers of the recipients. They are not intended to attract anyone; they are the products neither of rites nor ritual. They are produced the same way all articles are produced, except instantaneously. They last as long as all material objects. "My best gift is love; devotees should strive to acquire that, as well as discrimination and detachment which only the Guru can give," said Baba.

He then materialized by the mere Wave of His Hand a magnificent Rudraksha garland of 108 beads, a rosary made from a berry. It was of exquisite workmanship, each bead encased in gold, and all were strung in gold with a five-faced king-bead in the center. He presented it to Swami Sivananda Saraswati. He also manifested a large quantity of Sacred Ash and applied it to the sage s forehead. That evening when the Swami entered the Satsang Hall wearing the unique garland, everyone was awed by its luster and workmanship and the miracle that brought it forth. Swami Sivananda spoke of Bhagavan and His message. He expounded on the efficacy of Namasmarana, the remembering of the Name of God, and appealed as a medical practitioner for a daily dose of dispassion to be taken by every person along with the regular diet of the Lord s Name. The Ganges was mentioned in the talk Baba gave that evening. He began by saying that Naram meant "water"; the Ganges rolling majestically along was God, Narayana Himself, "God in man." Indeed the hills and dales, the sky overhead, the forests, the rocks, all things everywhere were but manifestations of the One. God willed, "I am One, let Me become many," and He became the world and all the beings therein. The one sun is reflected in the water of faith. Faith itself leads one to wisdom. The man with steady faith quickly and easily realizes the Lord is immanent in everything, and that He is the One and Only.

Baba s speeches and conversation were so full of rare and deep wisdom that the next day a number of senior monks and neophytes came to see Baba and plied Him with questions designed to clarify their doubts. Swami Sivananda also had hour-long discussions with Baba every evening and was given fruits and Holy Ash materialized specially for improving his health. Day by day the Swami became better and better. One day Baba took Ganges water in His Hand, and lo, it became sweet and fragrant nectar. He gave it to the Swami to be taken as a cure. It came as a pleasant surprise to many in the Ashram when they saw, on the day Baba departed, Swami Sivananda enthusiastically taking Baba around his hermitage, for on the day Baba reached the Ashram, and for a number of days thereafter, the Swami had been pushed around in a wheel chair!

The twenty-sixth of July, 1957, was full of pleasant memories for the devotees and the residents of the Sivanand-ashram, for Baba boarded a bus and proceeded along the bank of the Ganges to a palace of the Rani of Garhwal for a quiet morning.

The scenery all along the way was very elevating. Here and there among the mountains one could discern a lonely hut with the Gerua Flag of a monk indicating a battle with the lower self. Suddenly the road turned and the bus was halted in front of an artistic little bungalow set like a gem in the center of a well kept garden by the side of the Ganges. Baba saw a jambu tree full of fruits; He plucked and distributed them to the members of the party, then sat under a tree on the river bank. Some asked Him questions that were troubling them, including those about the nature of the scriptural texts and their value to modern times. He said they were like sign posts indicating the road; the road has to be traversed in order to experience the joy of reaching the goal. There was one question on heaven and hell both of which, Baba said, do exist here in this world. Monks inquired about the realization of the universal and the melting away of the delusion attached to the individual at that time. (Kasturi N. , SSSm Vol.1)

Five years later when the Swami left his body behind and merged in that Truth, Baba announced his departure to me at Puttaparthi (thousands of miles away). It was a few minutes after the emergence of the Lingam from Baba s stomach where it grew for days. It was Maha shivaratri; Baba told me that Swami s body will be buried with the Sphatika Rosary on the chest. (It was!) (Kasturi N. , Lov God, 1982)